Brightening Biochemistry: The Role of Humor in Scientific Research
Lunchtime Lectures
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
1:00 p.m.–1:45 p.m. EST (UTC -5)
In the 1920s members of the Sir William Dunn Institute for Biochemistry at Cambridge University published Brighter Biochemistry, a comic journal “better than Punch.” Humor, however, is no laughing matter for modern science: it provides a means of addressing conflict, change, and chance in the laboratory. In this talk MIT associate professor and author Robin Wolff Scheffler will use Brighter Biochemistry to illustrate the important perspective that humor offers on the process of scientific work and the historical experience of scientists.
About the Series
Now combined with our Saturday Speaker Series, Lunchtime Lectures take a rigorous and entertaining approach to exploring topics for scholars and anyone interested in stories about the history of science. The talks help expand perceptions of the nature of science and how it’s done. This season, our speakers are exploring issues of gender, race, and colonialism in the history of the physical and biological sciences from the early modern period to the 21st century.